STAFF

From censorship and AI to book fairs and the state of middle grade publishing, it's been an eventful year. Among those driving SLJ's most viewed posts of 2023: Jeff Kinney, Moms for Liberty, and stellar librarians. Ah, and those Best Books.

Remembering those who died this year.

A complaint to the police sent a plainclothes officer to the school in Great Barrington, MA, but Gender Queer was not there; hundreds of books get removed in a Florida district; and Books Save Lives Act was introduced in Congress.

From intellectual freedom to AI, there was plenty to learn and discuss at the 2023 SLJ Summit in Atlanta. Here are just some of the ideas that came from those on panels and in breakout sessions.

Who doesn't love a booklist? SLJ's got 'em. From Best Books and Refreshing the Canon—our joint effort with NCTE—to Spanish-language picture books and titles on non-apparent disabilities, our most popular booklists of 2023.

The winner of the award for best YA debut will be announced during the Youth Media Awards ceremony on January 22.

The winner of the award, which honors the best YA nonfiction title, will be announced during the Youth Media Awards ceremony on January 22.

PEN America's report, Spineless Shelves: Two Years of Book Banning, shows the spread of copycat book bans, as well as how several titles from an author were targeted after one of their works was banned.

Review committees decided to keep challenged books on the shelves in districts in Maryland, Tennessee, and North Dakota; two new grassroots organizations to fight book banning were started by Texas parents and grandparents across the country, respectively.